Rotor & Wing Magazine :: Military :: Medical

It’s not good when a pilot loses situational awareness in a dust cloud near the ground. Brownout is a major threat to helicopters in Iraq and Afghanistan. The U.S. Department of Defense has estimated that 37 percent of helicopter losses there between 2001 and 2008 involved brownout and obstacle strikes. This article looks at pilot brownout aids and other emerging technologies. Combat unit training...

Flight nurse Jackie Turcotte (left) and flight paramedic Bob Johnson move a patient from LifeFlight of Maine’s AgustaWestland AW109 to the emergency department at Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston. After a horrible year in 2008, when HEMS fatalities ballooned to 29, the industry experienced six fatalities in 2009, according to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). While this may be...

Korean War helicopter pilot, World War II fighter pilot, author, artist, great-grandfather. Many people would relish in accomplishing just one of these goals. For Richard C. Kirkland, that’s just where his story begins. Among his honors are the Distinguished Flying Cross, six Air Medals and the U.S. Air Force Commendation Medal. Rotor & Wing visited Kirkland recently at his home in Vienna, Va....

The following was adapted from an NTSB preliminary accident report: “On Sept. 25, 2009, at approximately 11:30 p.m., a Eurocopter AS350B2 was substantially damaged when it crashed near Georgetown County Airport (GGE), Georgetown, S.C. The certificated commercial pilot and two others on board were killed in the crash. Instrument meteorological conditions prevailed, and a company visual flight rules...

Products | Technology Researchers at NASA Langley have tested a “deployable energy absorber,” by dropping a helicopter from 35 feet above the ground. The device, which features an expandable honeycomb-design cushion, was tested with the help of a U.S. Army Applied Physics Laboratory-donated MD500, four crash test dummies and a 240-foot structure that was previously used to teach astronauts how...

What’s Stifling Innovation? On page 52 of the November 2009 issue of Rotor & Wing, Giovanni de Briganti asks, “Are Legacy Designs Stifling Innovation?” I would respond that there are, in fact, two stifling forces at work. First, there are the financial realities that drive OEMs and others to develop relatively short-term, cost-effective solutions. These are essentially band-aid fixes...

Military | Personnel Recovery The military business of Joint Personnel Recovery (JPR) is low down the priority list of many a General and politician. Low down that is, until a hostage appears on an Arabic media channel such as al Jazeera or a pilot is shot down and needs rescuing, or civilians need extracting from a rapidly deteriorating situation (usually in the glare of the world’s media). It is...

Goodrich Corporation is one of the world’s largest aerospace and defense suppliers, with annual sales nearing $7 billion. Goodrich has been in operation for 140 years and employs 25,000 people in 80 worldwide manufacturing and service sites. With one of the most strategically diversified portfolios of products in the aerospace industry, Goodrich provides aircraft operators and manufacturers around...

One of the benefits of being a consultant in the helicopter industry is interacting with great people. Aussies, Brits or folks from Amman, helicopter people share a zest for life that’s hard to match. I derive particular joy in spending time in the company of serving military officers. They fly neat stuff, tell good stories and allow us to sleep at night, knowing that they are guarding both our front...

About a year ago, the Corpus Christi Army Depot (CCAD) faced a dilemma. A steady flow of battle-damaged helicopters was coming in for refurbishment and overhaul from Iraq and Afghanistan, and the center was tasked to carry out two major Sikorsky H-60 upgrade programs. The workload was expanding but not the resources. CCAD leadership had to determine how to do more with less. They had adopted...

Public Service | Law Enforcement AgustaWestland handed over an AW139 to the Korea Coast Guard on Oct. 23. Italian manufacturer AgustaWestland has delivered two AW139s to the Korea Coast Guard, which will employ the...

Public Service | SAR U.S. Coast Guard/PO1 Sara FrancisAET2 Tito Sabangan and AST1 Chuck Ferrante scan the Gulf of Alaska for two kayakers during a search and rescue mission. Ferrante assisted the kayakers in the water. A U.S. Coast Guard MH-60 Jayhawk teamed with a fishing vessel on a recent mission to rescue two lost kayakers that were discovered near Gore Point, around 40 miles southeast of Homer...

TRAINING/EMS A MedEvac Foundation International study has found that five percent of urgent care patients experience a life-threatening event or, in rare cases, death while on air medical transport flights. Dr. Jeff Singh and co-author Dr. Russell MacDonald of...

MILITARY/AIRFRAMES The last of some 10,000 UH-1 Hueys built for the U.S. Army has now left operational service, ending a four-decade run as the “workhorse” of U.S. Army Aviation and solidifying forever the role of the helicopter in military operations. The last Huey—a UH-1H, tail number 0-21776 in operation with the 121st Medevac Company of the DC National Guard—was flown out of...

I hadn’t wanted to write such a serious piece on my second month as editor. But the Washington Post series called "Fatal Flights" that was published at the end of August and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) hearing on September 1 left me no choice. If you are at all involved in helicopter emergency medical services (HEMS), you have probably already reviewed the NTSB...

NEWS In its latest response to the helicopter emergency medical services (HEMS) industry’s flight record, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has added a new arrow to its quiver. The agency has ventured into the public insurance reimbursement arena with the idea of using financial pressure to change industry culture. It has recommended tying operator reimbursement to an as-yet undefined...

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